2 Answers
2

The short answer: No, that is not appropriate. You should just use ‘before’ in that sentence.

‘In before’ is not really a phrase as such. It is just the adverb/preposition ‘in’ followed by the preposition/conjunction/adverb ‘before’ (word class for ‘in’ and ‘before’ written in subscript after each occurrence):

He opened the door and went inadvbeforeconj I had the chance to tell him the floor was broken.

A: “My brother’s inprep jail again …”
B: “Again? Has he been inadvbeforeadv?

There is one case where ‘in before’ is used in what might appear to be a collocative way, which is on Internet forums and like places. In this case, inadv refers to managing to get your post in (i.e., to submit your post) beforeprep someone else, or beforeconj someone else comes along.

An example: say there is someone on an Internet forum who is well-known for being obsessed with ravioli and the proper way to make them. We shall call this user RavioliMeister. If someone on the forum then creates a thread about some delicious instant ravioli they made last night, regulars on the forum can be certain that RavioliMeister will come along and make a long post about the evils of instant ravioli and the fantasticness of home-made ravioli. Because RavioliMeister is quite obsessed with ravioli, he is imagined to almost have a sixth sense about the topic, and to come running as soon as anything is posted about them.

If one of these regular users then sees the thread before RavioliMeister and makes a post, he is quite likely to say:

In before RavioliMeister!

That is then jargon corresponding more or less to:

Look, everyone! I was so quick to post in this thread that I managed to get my post inadvbeforeconj RavioliMeister came along to write the post we all know he is going to write!

Just to summarize for others, you’re saying that in before is not a compound. It never forms a multiword element with a single part-of-speech, as occurs so frequently with compound/phrasal/multiword prepositions (eg: across from) or compound/phrasal/multiword conjunctions (eg: as if). Instead, in is always one part-of-speech and before is always a different part-of-speech.
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tchristDec 8 '13 at 15:14

@tchrist: Yes, exactly. At least, I can’t think of any cases where in before becomes a single, multi-word element.
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Janus Bahs JacquetDec 8 '13 at 15:15

In before X (sometimes "inb4 X") is most often used as the first reply to a thread or comment, and only if that thread or comment is bait: that is, there is at least a 100% chance that someone else will reply to the OP using a particular meme, flame, or solution.